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I shall conclude this desultory account of the alligator, with- 
a few passages from the sublime description of the Egyptian 
crocodile in the book of Job. “ Canst thou draw out leviathan 
with a hook, or his tongue with a cord? canst thou fill his skin with 
barbed irons, or his head with fish-spears? Lay thine hand upon 
him, remember the battle, do no more! none is so fierce that dare 
stir him up; shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him ? 
who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round 
about: his scales are his pride, shut up together, as with a close 
seal; one is so near to another, that no air can come between 
them: they are joined one to another; they stick together, that 
they cannot be sundered. By his neesings a light doth shine; 
and his eyes are like the eye-lids of the morning; out of his 
mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out; out 
of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot, or cal- 
dron. In his neck remaineth strength; his heart is firm as a 
stone; the sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold; the spear, 
the dart, nor the habergeon: for he esteemeth iron as straw, and 
brass as rotten wood : darts are counted as stubble, he laugheth at 
the shaking of a spear. Upon earth there is not his like, who is 
made without fear!” 
The ichneumon, or mongoose (viverra ichneumon, Lin.) which 
is said to destroy the eggs of the crocodile on the banks of the 
Nile, are equally destructive to those of the alligator, deposited 
near the rivers of Tiavencore; where these useful animals abound; 
they also devour the young ones on shore, as their food is vermin, 
and reptiles of every description: they are enemies to serpents, 
with whom they wage perpetual war; and when wounded by their 
